How much time to allow for Epcot World Showcase???

[kohlby]

As much time as you have.

You will be able to see a lot in one afternoon, but it takes more time than that to hit every country in our experience. I agree that part of the fun of WS is not having a plan. Also, don't forget about the Agent P game. My kids love that. With that included, it could easily take my kids days and days to do EP. We have 3 days planned for our next trip at EP for 7 days worth of parks. And I'm sure we could easily spend more.

 

[maryandtyson]

Thanks for all the helpful advice and comments! Are the character meets really all around 30 minutes in late September between 11 and 12? I had heard to expect the WS to be more crowded during Food and Wine but wasn't sure if that would affect the character greets. We have one unplanned day to spend the week of our visit for anything that we want to go back for or to help account for weather issues. So-I really just want to glance around and check things out and meet Mulan and Pooh for sure. If we love Epcot and the kids are up for the walk we could go back a second day and get more in depth in each country.

Yes, the meet and greet lines can be quite long. You might wait 10 minutes, but it can easily be 30. Plus, the time it takes to walk. Trust me, there is no possible way to start in Canada at 11 am and make it to Akershus at 12, unless you just walk with very little stopping. You might get lucky and come across a very short line for one character, but you might not. The shortest line seems to always be Aurora in France, but you are heading to a Princess lunch, so why bother?

I agree with PP. Start in Mexico and take your time after lunch to really enjoy WS. It's truly a treasure and my DDs (12 and 10) agree!

 

[itchin2go]

Yes, the meet and greet lines can be quite long. You might wait 10 minutes, but it can easily be 30. Plus, the time it takes to walk. Trust me, there is no possible way to start in Canada at 11 am and make it to Akershus at 12, unless you just walk with very little stopping. You might get lucky and come across a very short line for one character, but you might not. The shortest line seems to always be Aurora in France, but you are heading to a Princess lunch, so why bother?

I agree with PP. Start in Mexico and take your time after lunch to really enjoy WS. It's truly a treasure and my DDs (12 and 10) agree!

We've never waited 30 minutes, but it's hit and miss. I don't think we've ever waited longer than 10, but maybe if the line is long, we've skipped it?

Don't be put off by that. World Showcase is special.

 

[ariane37]

This is a hard question to answer but I agree with many of the pp's that WS really can't be done quickly, unless you just walk by the countries and give them a glance. There's so much to see and do, and each time we're there my DS's find something new that interests them as well as the same things they wanted to see/do on previous trips so you never know what will make your kids want to stop

As for character m & g's, depending on the character we've waited anywhere from 10 minutes to 30-40 minutes
(Aladdin & Jasmine, Belle & Beast when they met together were long). Mulan never seems to have much of a wait and Pooh in the UK also never seems to have a long line, but of course that may not be the case when you're there. It also depends if you hit them while they're out, or if you're in that country right when they've gone in for a break!

I would say don't limit yourself to a small # of hours in the WS if possible, but that's just my opinion Both my boys, now 8 & 12, have always loved all of EPCOT and they've been going to WDW since they were toddlers.

 

[jenhelgren]

I guess I should have added that it is a late lunch ADR for 2:55. I knew that an hour would not be sufficient but we will have almost 4 hours if we start in the WS right at 11 when it opens. My husband is not much for crowds at all which is why we always visit Disney during a "quieter" time and we have never been to Epcot during Food and Wine so I don't want to end up with any cranky family members before we even get to lunch. I would love to sample and roam the Food and Wine but my daughter is looking forward to Princess Lunch so that is the plan for this trip We are palling Epcot for Thursday, September 25, any guesses as to how the crowds will be from 11-3 in WS? I have little experience with Epcot so all the comments so far have been great!

 

[figment_jii]

I guess I should have added that it is a late lunch ADR for 2:55. I knew that an hour would not be sufficient but we will have almost 4 hours if we start in the WS right at 11 when it opens. My husband is not much for crowds at all which is why we always visit Disney during a "quieter" time and we have never been to Epcot during Food and Wine so I don't want to end up with any cranky family members before we even get to lunch. I would love to sample and roam the Food and Wine but my daughter is looking forward to Princess Lunch so that is the plan for this trip We are palling Epcot for Thursday, September 25, any guesses as to how the crowds will be from 11-3 in WS? I have little experience with Epcot so all the comments so far have been great!

I don't think you're going to have four hours to tour WS. I would say you're looking at closer to 3.5 hours (because they ask you to check in 15-minutes before your ADR).

I would take a look at Kenny the Pirates website to get a sense of which characters are out in WS and at what times. From that you can figure out which ones you might see. It's worth noting that the do cut off the lines so that the characters can get their breaks. My instinctive answer is that with 3.5 hours, you'll probably be able to see maybe three characters, depending on timing and lines. The duo meet & greets (e.g., Aladdin and Jasmine) always seem the longest, but it can be quite variable.
http://kennythepirate.com/disney-wo.../disney-world-epcot-characters-schedule-list/

Given that it's a Thursday, I don't think the crowds will be horrendous in WS. I don't think F&W really affects the length of the character m&g lines, just the crowds in WS. The worse times are the weekends (Friday evening through Sunday), so Thursday should be okay.

Given that you really only have a very short amount of time for WS, I would probably opt to pick which countries to explore and not try to see all of them.

 

[W.E.D.]

We make a day of WS, so I say you need 10 hours (11a.m. - 9p.m.) We also stop back several evenings during our trip. Perhaps I'm not the right person to ask?